10/07/2012 (The Star) - Owners of oil palm plantations including smallholders in the state have been warned to take extra precautionary measures to prevent the outbreak of the Ganoderma basal stem rot (GBSR) disease.

Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation Owners Associa-tion (Soppoa) chairman Datuk Abdul Hamed Sepawi 2in giving the warning, said the disease if not put under control could threaten the existence of the whole industry in the state.

Basal stem rot, caused by the wood-rotting fungus Ganoderma boninense, is a disease that reduces oil palm yields in most production areas of the world. As the incidences increase progressively, they slowly but inevitably erode the profitability of the industry.

Hamed was speaking at the launch of the two-day seminar “Ganoderma, Exotic and other Emerging Diseases of Oil Palm Industry in Malaysia” here. He said one good way to keep the disease at bay was for plantation owners and smallholders to adopt good management practices from the seedling stage right up to operational procedures.

Most plantation owners did not realise the huge losses incurred when the disease struck because the situation in Sarawak at the moment was still negligible and within management, said Hamed during a question-answer session with the media after the launch yesterday. More than 160 participants from major oil palm plantations here participated in the seminar which, among others, included field trips to various plantations to give them a closer look at the damage incurred by the disease and ways to mitigate it.

He said the devastating GBSR disease conti-nued to be a major threat that prevented plan-ters from achieving optimum yields from their oil palm cultivations.

In Malaysia, 3.7% incidences of the disease have been reported in estates nationwide.

“In Sarawak, it is estimated that 59,000ha over scattered areas of oil palm plantation encompassing 1.1 million ha have been infected with the disease.

“The figure may escalate in no time if the owners are not made aware of the risk of the disease and what they should do to curb it from being an economic threat,” warned Hamed.

He said Sumatra in Indonesia was currently facing a serious threat from the disease with thousands of hectares of oil palms dying. In Peninsular Malaysia, a total of 400,00ha of oil palm plantations were reported to have been infected with the disease.

“The number is still negligible in Sarawak but we have to start mitigating the issues by doing awareness talk like this to prevent the disease from spreading into an epidemic level,” he said, adding that an infected oil palm tree could only survived between three and five years with very poor yield.

“Economic losses running into billions are expected if the disease is not controlled and dealt with now,” he said.

Meanwhile, Malaysia Palm Oil Board (MPOB) had undertaken various researches to mitigate the situation. One of the studies, which uses natural or cultivated organisms such as endophytic fungi, was initiated as early as 2000. The application of these fungi to combat Ganoderma disease through in-vitro and nursery trials had yielded positive results.

Current methods used by the industry players to control the disease include surgery and soil mounding, isolation trenching around the infected palm, trunk injection of systemic fungicides and removal of diseased palm.

“However, the best method is still prevention rather than curative measures, which could be costly,” said Hamed, adding that to treat an oil palm tree infected with the disease would cost about RM20 per tree, or about RM7,000 per ha covering on average 350 trees.

Hamed said the disease, which is endemic to the region’s soil, seemed prone to attack second generation trees.

Thus, one of the best ways to kill the disease and curb its spread was by burning.

“We hope the relevant agencies like Natural Resources and Environment Board and Environment Department will assist us to look into this area by allowing burning in selected areas,” said Hamed.

He said all parties involved including the relevant agencies, plantation owners and smallholders should be made aware of the impact of the disease and potential losses it could generate to the owner and country’s revenue.